Over 25,000 houses damaged in cyclone

HYDERABAD: The State government has finally put the number of houses damaged fully or partially in Prakasam and six other districts during the recent cyclonic storm ‘Laila' at 25,000.

The other districts are Guntur, Krishna, East Godavari, West Godavari, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam. Pending completion of the ongoing enumeration of the loss to life and property, a decision has been taken to implement the existing relief package under which the affected families will receive Rs. 5,000 for a fully damaged house and Rs. 4,000 for those partially damaged.

Meanwhile, the officials in the Disaster Management Department are busy preparing the report on the loss for being submitted to the Centre to seek assistance. It will get a final shape on Wednesday when the details from the worst-hit Prakasam district are expected to be received.

Reviewing the progress of relief operations here on Tuesday, Chief Minister K. Rosaiah stated that he had already requested the Centre to release Rs 6,000 crore as interim assistance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund, treating Laila as a calamity of severe nature. He noted that but for the alert maintained by the officials, the human loss and damage to properties would have been higher.

Mr. Rosaiah said that despite heavy damage caused to installations of AP Transco and discoms, power supply could be restored to all the affected 3,995 villages and 32 towns. He asked Collectors to draw funds under Treasury Rule No 27 to meet the exigencies without awaiting clearance from Hyderabad.